Object Literature
The clock maker inscription is illegible but there is a pencil mark lower down which is easier to read but still rather difficult to make out. The wheel is stamped Wilson Birmingham verso. James Wilson was in partnership with T. Osborne from around 1772 to 1777 and they are widely credited with being the first real manufacturers of painted or japanned dials for clocks in imitation of the much more expensive true enamelling on to copper. Wilson died in 1809.
The purpose of a moon phase dial – like the time dial that tracks the time through the day, is to keep tract of the moon’s position as it travels around the earth, every 291/2 days – which is one lunar month.
A beautifully decorative piece of revolving wall art.